IntSights' Blog

Our Top Blog Posts of 2018

2018 has been a busy year for the IntSights blog! Between notable breaches, intelligence best practices, new research reports and important dark web discoveries, there's been a lot to cover this past year. In fact, we've published over 70 new posts this year from 12 different authors. In addition, we've increased our blog subscribersby more than 150%. We're looking forward to continue blogging away in 2019, but for now let's look back at our top blog posts from 2018.

#1: 15 Tools and Technologies Commonly Used in Dark Web Black Markets

Author: Itay KozuchDate: July 3

When it comes to dark web black markets, anonymity is key. To help maintain their anonymity,dark web black market usersleverage a variety of tools and technologies that mask their identity and location. It’s important to know how these tools are used so you can perform reconnaissance and identify potential attacks or leaked information that can be used against you. Here is our list of 15 common technologies and tools used by cybercriminals to access and communicate via the dark web.

#2: An Inside Look at how the Asian Dark Internet Impacts Threat Hunters and Cybersecurity Teams

Author: Hadar RosenbergDate: August 8

The “Dark Web” is a growing buzzword in the world of cybersecurity and general technology. As it's grown in size and usage, various regions of the world havedeveloped their own dark web communities and “codes of conduct” that can differquite dramatically. One such region is Asia, whose underground Internet community has grown increasingly advanced and threatening to Western companies and governments. This has posed a number of new challenges for threat intelligence and cybersecurity teams who need to perform threat reconnaissance in these communities. In this post, we share some of the key differences among major Asian Internet communities and what you need to know about their landscape.

There’s no question that the threat landscape is constantly shifting for financial services companies. Throughout 2017 and the first half of 2018, we’ve seen a continued increase in attacks that directly target financial organizations, which comes as no surprise. However, increased access to user and account data has enabled cybercriminals to run large-scale fraud attacks and more successful phishing campaigns. These account-centric attacks can be very hard for financial organizations to spot and don’t just cause financial losses. They can be incredibly damaging to brand reputation and lead to huge fines. Pre-discovery of these attacks through hacker methods, tools and other indicators is critical for banking and financial services organizations to protect customers, reduce fraud costs and maintain their brand reputation.

#4: Major Carding Site Replacement: How Altenen.nz Rose From the Ashes of Altenen.com

Author: Orin MorDate: July 31

At the end of May 2018 (only a few months ago), there was a major site takedown that shook the dark web world. This site was Atlenen.com, a major carding site where hackers bought and sold fraud tactics. The site was taken down after Israeli authorities arrested the site’s manager, a Palestinian from Hebron. In the aftermath, a number of new carding sites have come and gone, but one has emerged as the potential replacement, with its daily user count quickly rising. Here’s our recap of the site takedown, and where threat hunters should shift their focus for finding new threats and fraud tactics.

#5: A Dark Web Analysis of the Bank of Montreal and Simplii Financial Breach

Author: Ariel AinhorenDate: June 28

On May 28, 2018, news reports started to surface about a data breach affecting two CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) subsidiaries – BMO (Bank of Montreal) and Simplii Financial. The reports stated that a data breach had occurred and that 90,000 customer records had been leaked. Hackers demanded a ransom of 1,000,000 Ripple XRP cryptocurrency (roughly about $750,000) or they would release the data into dark web black markets and sites. Here is our analysis of how the hacker performed this breach and tried to extort these bank branches based on the digital breadcrumbs this hacker left behind.

Happy New Year and Looking Ahead...

Happy New Year and thanks to all those who subscribed to and read our blog this past year. We're looking forward to a great 2019, and will continue providing you with news, best practices, new perspectives and helpful resources so you can proactively defend your organization in an increasingly digital world.

If you haven't already, subscribe now to our blog to make sure you don't miss a thing in 2019!

Nathan is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at IntSights, responsible for the company's positioning, messaging and content strategy. He has worked in IT and cybersecurity marketing for over 5 years, holding a number of different roles across product marketing, marketing programs and content marketing. In his free time, he enjoys staying active, being outdoors and following any and all Boston sports teams.

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